#aaronofithaca05

I take a lot of liberties with everything "nonmortal" (demigods, nymphs, etc.) because honestly it's just genuinely fun to write about plus I'm neurodivergent :P also have chronic pain, so I like writing SOME of my gals doing athletics. Mostly just Penelope and Helen being SUPER into it while other women have some activities they like. Ctimene for example, likes running and Anticlea woodcarving (who Odysseus learned it from)

Also silly thing, but one thing I always try to keep in mind is the idea of "A lot of people write women just reacting and not affecting" and I feel like people think Homer and other Ancient Greek Authors do that when...No. They write very dynamic and complex women. Penelope isn't JUST "sobbing" when the suitors are there. If it weren't for her schemes, she'd be married already. BUT NO!!! She's so cunning and held them off WITHOUT physical force!!!

"She should've killed them-" YEs! BUT there are also the political implications of that and xenia to consider!!! Literally at the end of the Odyssey, Athena has to calm everybody down!!! She couldn't do that without even more angry people coming at her!!! rtdyfugh ANYWAYS

I also take "likeminded" and sprint with it. For every shitty/wonderful thing Odysseus has done, she's rooting for it or would do something similar. They're as full of love as they are full of hate.

These two are that "evil couple" sometimes. She's sitting in his lap and they just humiliated someone publically and laugh at them and then they start nuzzling noses, giggling.

She's prideful in many ways as well and she's not against throwing someone under the bus if she needs to and WILL blackmail. You're afraid of snakes and she doesn't like you? "Oh my gosh! What do you think of my new snake necklace?"

She's pretty reckless often in her youth (Her and Odysseus both got that Adhd swag). For example, in my one fic's first chapter, it mentions how she ate a catfish that is making her sick. She rushed in and wasn't even thinking about "...Hey, isn't this one kind of weird?" She was pretending she was fine at first when she clearly wasn't as she doesn't like showing "weakness" (plus adrenaline). Also as she just gave birth like, 8-9 months before, she's in a weird funk of feeling strange about how her body has changed a bit despite recovering very well (water helps!). She's soooo happy she took the "beast" down. While sick, she knew she was reckless and mad at herself.

She's actually closest with Helen probably. Her siblings are a bit older than her and as she was born in a creek and quite smaller because of it (Naiads being affected by the waters they were born in) she got teased by some other naiads for quite a while. Helen is also, a little shit, in her own way so these two loved doing silly shit often. (Penelope, Helen, Menelaus, Castor, and Pollux, were this very strange little squad of kiddos who just...did random shit. They each have scars and knicks from their silliness (except Helen and Pollux))

Some of the scales she has on her arms and one shoulder, dry out quicker, from one of the times older naiads got a hold of her and kind of ripped at them :'D "Puddle girl"

It's something she carries with her in a way and when her water breaks with Telemachus, she hides it at first being like "Hey, let's head towards the caves!!!" until Odysseus realizes and he's so frustrated and upset with her has to scoop her up. (her stubbornness and recklessness) He scolds her after everything calms down like two weeks later.

Funny enough, I've had this idea for a LONG time even before I watched the 90's Odyssey. Odysseus just gives that vibe of "I'm not fucking leaving." don't he?

Odysseus: I can't believe you did that. The Canals were closer, Penelope- Penelope: I know but he'd be so much stronger if he were born in the caves and he is. AND I'm fine!!! I'm actually doing very well.

She hates bracelets. She usually ends up breaking them from messing with them too much.

Athena technically spoke with her first before Odysseus but Athena was WATCHING Odysseus for a longer time.

She's really close with her parents because her eldest sister got married quite young and her brothers are in the military. She goes running with dad often (let me have this) and she enjoys swimming (ofc), running, and pankration (Idk why I think it's really neat but I do)

She's got a scar on her temple that is kind of hidden by her hair from when she got washed away once when she was little (the scars she DOES have are because of her own novice attempts at healing, otherwise she doesn't have really any) and she's got a little crook in her nose, something she's self-conscious about as it was one of her first times "setting bone" with water and so it didn't end up perfect. It's not too noticeable but of course, you notice your own flaws more than others. (When she finally allows Odysseus to kiss her face, he immediately places a little kiss on her nose.)